


Terrarian

by 823KE



Series: Insert OC [1]
Category: Terraria
Genre: Gen, Self-Insert, Video Game Mechanics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:13:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24525949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/823KE/pseuds/823KE
Summary: To commemorate the 9th anniversary of Terraria, here's a story revolving around an OC persona thrown into a world of Terraria, exploring the lore and myths of the game, and the joy that is literally 'world-building'... and the pain that comes with everything in the game, of course.
Series: Insert OC [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1772437
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	1. Forest of Beginnings (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. Terraria is a fun game, I quite enjoy it. To commemorate its anniversary (which I'm late for), I've decided to write a story exploring the world of Terraria. Thank you for checking out this story, and I hope everyone continues to have fun with Terraria.

The color blue was painted across the sky, shades of white scattered across the emptiness above.

Down below, a colorful plethora of trees and birds and squirrels gave life to what looked like a peaceful forest.

Everything seemed well - nature itself was singing in harmony, with the aid of the cool breeze spreading peace throughout the land.

And one such traveler was admiring the view.

The man, his hair a dark shade of yellow-orange and spiked, was a traveler who had been, well, traveling the world for some time now.

Life was a mysterious thing: it exists in so many shapes and forms, painting places with the beauty of life, the horrors of carnage, the mysteries of unknowing... and because of such environments fostered by life itself, there were so limitless sights to see, to witness, to experience. That was something the man loved about the world - he could never get enough of exploring.

Then, behind the man, was the unconscious body of a mysterious girl.

"...?" The man turned around and nearly jumped. Indeed, there was a mysterious girl lying on the ground behind him, unconscious, unharmed. "Whoa! What in the world...?" he rasped, before rushing to her side, kneeling on one, eh, knee. "Hey. Hey, excuse me?"

"Mrrnhhh... lemmm... lhemrow..." the girl muttered in her sleep.

Confused, he paused to raise an eyebrow. _Le... Lhemrow...?_ the man thought. _What the heck is that? And... who is this girl?_ Looking up, he wondered here she even appeared from. Seconds prior, he walked to where he was without encountering any unconscious bodies on the forest ground. _Did she fall from the sky...?_

For a moment, the man pondered some more before he came to a conclusion.

 _I see. She must be a player,_ he thought. _So the time has finally come._ Sighing, the man began nudging her again. "Hey. Excuse me, um... miss. Wake up."

Slowly, the girl's eyes opened groggily, and she pushed herself upwards, still in a daze. "Uhhuhhrhh... whuh, huh...? What's... whuh?" Her vision gradually sharpening, the girl soon made the observation that she was in a forest.

A forest she wasn't familiar with, for obvious, natural reasons.

"Where... where the hell is this?" she asked. Then, looking around, she noticed all sorts of trees scattered around the forest. "...where the hell _am_ I? What sort of trippy shit _is_ this place?"

"Oh, finally. You're awake," the man said.

She sharply whipped her head to him, surprised. "Whoa! Uh, geez! Who the hell are you!?"

"...right. You must be new to our world I will explain soon enough." Clearing his throat, the man offered a hand to the girl. "Can you get up?"

"...yeah, sure, whatever." Without grabbing his hand, she got on her feet and looked around. "...seriously, this is a weird forest. You sure I'm not on drugs?"

"...no, be assured, you aren't. ...I hope." The man cleared his throat again. "My name's Andrew. I'm the Guide, your first comrade, and the basic book of knowledge that will help you through your experiences in this world. Is this your first time playing?"

"Hm. Andrew, Guide, knowledge... pl, playing?" the girl asked, recoiling in confusion. "The heck's that mean?"

"Am I wrong?" Andrew asked. "Certainly, you're one of life's 'players' who came to this world to experience what you consider a game, am I right?"

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Uh, friend, I'm starting to think you're the one on drugs."

Andrew frowned. "Hm. This is perplexing. I could've sworn your sudden appearance meant it's our world's time to... no, that asides," he said and glanced up at the sky. "For a while now, things haven't been quite the same right before you appeared."

"...is this going to be some sort of 'Chosen One' prophecy?" the girl asked. "Please don't say that it will be, because honestly, I'm not interested in all that stuff."

"Although I've never heard of anything like this happening..." Andrew mused. "A strange voice and a mysterious girl showing up in our world, who isn't a player... who might you be?" he asked.

"Me? Uh... I'm just as lost as you are on the situation, but..." The girl cleared her throat and smiled. With her red hair and five flowing ends, two heart-shaped hair accessories of blue and pink on her head, and a hand-sized cowlick, she grinned and pointed to herself. "I'm Mikan, from the Hatsumi family!"

"Hatsumi... family?" Andrew asked. "I take it they're not a family of... players, are they?"

Mikan shook her head. "No, it's not an actual family, it's more like... hm. It's complicated, I guess," she said. "But uh, basically, I'm part of a 'family' of sorts and... uh... well, actually, I'm not sure what I want to say."

"...you are a peculiar girl, you know that?" Andrew asked. "Anyways, I suppose we can figure things out later. For now, welcome to our world," he said. "For players, I hear they refer to our worlds as 'Terraria'. Although I am not sure about the exact reason, I assume the reason behind the naming is based on the word 'terrarium', as in the fact that this world is observable to them like an animal in a terrarium."

The red haired girl blinked. "Uh... sure, maybe, I guess." _Terraria... that sounds familiar._ "I feel like I know that name, Terraria, from somewhere. But... I'm only drawing blanks right now."

"Strange. Quite strange indeed," Andrew mused. "Perhaps you _are_ a player, but with amnesia? Partial amnesia, maybe."

"...maybe." The girl stared at some trees in the distant. _Not sure how I feel about that though._ "Well, anyways. Why are we standing around in the forest?" she asked.

Andrew shrugged. "I was traveling around, relaxing in the forest. You, however, just appeared out of nowhere."

"I mean, sure, okay... do you know any place we could relax?" Mikan asked. "Or at least, where I can sit. Legs getting a bit tired."

"...sorry, there aren't any such places here," the guide replied.

She frowned. "...what, what do you mean?" she asked. "Like... house. A house. You have a house, don't you?"

"I'm afraid not," Andrew replied.

"...what?" Mikan asked, burrowing her eyes in both frustration and confusion.

"Other than the possible rooms of ancient ones deep underneath us," Andrew explained, "there are most likely no houses in existence within this world."

"What... but... the hell?" the girl said, incredulous. "That's... that's stupid. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! Where do you sleep then!?"

"I can make do on a tree branch strong enough to support my weight," the Guide explained. "I can also hide behind anything big enough to conceal my presence. That way, Demon Eyes and Zombies aren't able to ambush me and take my life."

"I... what?" The girl blinked and stayed silent for a few seconds, before shaking her head. _Okay, wait, I think I remember. Terraria's... a building game like that Minecraft thing, isn't it...?_ She put her hands together. "Right! What about building your own house?" she asked.

Andrew shook his head. "I'm afraid I also cannot do that."

"Wh... why not?"

He sighed. "Worlds like ours have what we call the Law of the World," the man explained. "While certainly, construction is extremely easy for players thanks to the Law of the World allowing so, most convenient possibilities are restricted solely to players," he said. "In simple terms, the Law of the World dictates that... only players can build and craft with ease."

"...seriously?" Mikan said. "You, you've got to be kidding me, right? ...right?"

Andrew chuckled. "Rest assured, while others cannot build like players do, we can help out with manual labor if ever needed, provided they aren't unrealistic in terms of actual construction."

"...so, like, what? Only I can do all the building, and you can only do the carrying and shit?"

"Essentially, yes," the guide replied. "But truthfully, my purpose is more to serve as an information resource for your crafts for this world, so... it's most likely I won't be of much assistance at all," he said.

Mikan grimaced. "Ugh... alright..."

"Incidentally, you should begin by building two rooms that we can each reside in, for protection during the night," Andrew said and smiled. "I wish you good luck, Mikan."

The girl rolled her eyes. _I already don't like this guy,_ she thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are some things I should note here for readers:  
>    
>  1) This story doesn't revolve around, but will incorporate a lot of my personal beliefs on the concept of multiverses, imagination, Gods, dimensions, etc. and in that, fourth walls play a part. I won't waste word counts explaining it here nor on FFN, but the basic gist is that this story _will_ contain fourth wall breaking from time to time, and if you dislike that sort of writing style, you may feel free to drop the story.  
>    
>  2) This story is, in a sense, a self-insert story. Mikan Hatsumi is an OC I developed as an online persona, whose name I used some time prior (MIKAN823). I've now set myself as 823 and created the concept of my own online family, 823KE (Hatsumi family), for all my original and fandom characters to be a part of - the reason for this being that I'm really fond of everything I create and don't want to abandon them to nothingness. That's why, Mikan is, from some time prior onwards, her own original character belonging to me. Therefore, while not exactly one, it is in a sense a self-insert, and if you dislike that sort of story, again, feel free to drop the story.  
>    
>  3) A common them in fantasy world stories, most notably for fandoms of games that lack an actual storyline, is that the main characters are some sort of 'Chosen One' who has been sent to the world, or stumbled upon the main story's setting, to fulfill a prophecy or save the world or something of that sort. I considered dong this, but settled on not going for it. Thus, I will state right here, this isn't a _'Girl is the Chosen One'_ story; this is a _'Girl thrown into Terraria (for the laughs)'_ story.


	2. Forest of Beginnings (part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, **Anonomy** , for your comment! Wow, it's been ages since I've received such a lengthy review or comment on a fanwork, so honestly, I'm quite at a loss of words, and pretty excited, at that. I'd write an even lengthier response here, but I'd feel bad about making anyone go through a long response (ueh) so I'll just say again, thank you very much! Perhaps I'll address some points in later chapters' commentaries, if any.

"So, uh... how does this work?" Mikan asked, unsure where to start. "Do I just... hit these trees with my fist? Until it breaks?" _You know, like that Minecraft game?_ To her relief, her new acquaintance shook his head. "Okay. No bashing trees with my fist. That's good."

"I'm curious as to where you developed that sort of idea, but rest assured, no self-harm is required for any sort of construction in our world," Andrew replied.

He then put a hand to his chin, wondering how to explain the mechanics of the world, before deciding to just tell things as it is.

"From what I know, you should be able to access a sort of... inventory space... storage, if that makes any sense."

"...I guess," Mikan said. His words brought to her mind those fantasy shows where characters are sent to a game-based world and spend less than ten minutes getting used to real-life game mechanics. Seeing as how, and understandably so, she had never had to try fumbling around with accessing a non-existent storage space, the girl wasn't really sure how to go about it. _I wonder if it just... opens up automatically._

Andrew watched as she took in some deep breathes. The girl then raised her hand and slowly reached forward, towards empty space.

The two waited in silence, in anticipation, for something to happen, anything at all.

Eventually, the guide tilted his head. "Did anything happen? ...in your field of vision?"

"Yeah, well... no, not really," the red haired girl said with a sigh, pulling her hand back. "I don't got nothing. This just feels stupid, really."

"Hm. How odd... I can always access my assist toolbox by just simply thinking about it when required," Andrew said.

"Your... your what?"

"My assist toolbox," the man explained. "When you obtain an item you do not know how to utilize, you may bring it to me," he said. "Then, by temporarily converting the item to data and inserting it into my virtual toolbox, I can analyze all the possible uses of the item, as crafting materials."

Mikan blinked. "Huh. Sounds... neat." _Not like I have anything right now though..._ Tracing Andrew's words back to the first part of his explanation, she briefly wondered if her inventory worked the same way. "...how did you say you open these... toolbox...es, again?"

"Why, just imagine you're opening a pouch, I suppose," he answered.

She nodded. "I... uh, okay." So in contrary to her beliefs, it seems like the weird, magical mechanics of the game worked alongside the mind. Assuming she came to the right conclusion, unless she willfully wishes for storage access, the inventory space won't show itself. Preparing herself to probably fail and look stupid once more, the girl slowly reached forward again, this time imagining herself reaching for an item.

Seconds later, her hand phased through what seemed like a barrier in the air.

The girl shivered, not used to the eerie sensation it brought her. "Whohohoa. That's... that feels creepy. Eesh..."

Andrew smiled. "I suppose you'll have to adjust and get used to it," he said. "It's really not that bad, personally."

"I, I know, I know..." she muttered. "Just... first time experiencing this." As she relaxed into the sensation, a holographic screen appeared in front of her. "Whoa! Uh... oh, is this showing what I have in my bag?"

Andrew nodded. "I assume it most likely is," he said. "Although I can't see it myself, I believe that should be the case," he said.

"Hm. I see," she replied. "Thanks for the help, Andy."

"...my name's Andrew," the man said. Sighing, he rubbed his chin and tried to recollect all that had been taught to him, by the Order of the Guide. "From what I hear, within your inventory screen, there should be five rows of ten items... or slots," he began. "The first row is unique in that you can also access the first row separately if you wish so, making it a convenient 'quick use' row for weapons and useful items you want to be able to use on the bat."

 _That must be the hotkey row... hotbar... row?_ Mikan reminded herself not to get too lost in wondering about the terminology for that.

"Next, the other four rows are your main storage space. Unlike real bags," Andrew said, "duplicate items will be automatically stored as a 'stack' and take only one space... supposedly. All items have a limit to how much can exist as one item, however."

Mikan nodded. "Sounds normal so far."

"Quite. Next, there should be eight additional spaces somewhere, for money and for ammo," the guide explained.

"Uh... oh, yeah, okay. I see those."

"What else... oh, that's right. I hear there is also one extra slot for disposing of items temporarily," Andrew said. "From what I gathered, you can store only one item in this space, and if you store another item, the previous one is erased from existence. However, the Order believes it is recommend the space is used as an extra space for carrying one more item."

"That... makes sense," Mikan noted. _More like, I never really thought about trash spaces like that... this guy's actually smart,_ she thought. "Okay, I think I get the hang of this inventory thing now. Is that all I need to know?"

"Hm... no, there's much more to teach," Andrew said, to her dismay. "However, I feel it'd be better if I provided more explanations only when needed, so as to not bore you or waste much time."

"...yeah, that'd be good, thanks." Sighing, the girl began doing some stretches, before she grinned and smacked her fists together. "Alright! Time to get busy!"

Andrew stared at her as she prepared her fists. "...please be reminded that you do not need to hurt your body to gather materials."

"Right, I know," Mikan said. "It's just... an expression, maybe, who knows. A physical one." Rolling her eyes, the girl reached into her hammer space and imagined pulling out one of the tools she noticed the game/world provided her: an axe. "Let's see... Iron Axe. So, I take this thing and..." She strutted over to the nearest tree around and glanced upwards at the height. "Uh. Yikes."

"What's the matter?" Andrew asked.

"...that's a tall tree," the girl note. "I... don't know anything about lumberjacking- that's a word now, don't question it- so I just hope it doesn't fall towards us. Or me."

Andrew chuckled. "I believe it should be fine if you do it," he said. "Players have special privileges even in reality manipulation itself, so you won't need to worry about trees falling on top of you."

Mikan raised an eyebrow. "The heck's _that_ supposed to mean?" she asked.

"Why don't you give it a try and see how it goes?"

She rolled her eyes. "Alrighty, fella." Mustering her strength, she took her first, mighty swing at the tree. It shook a bit as a cut was etched onto its bark. "Oooh... doesn't feel that bad," she said. Pulling back her axe, she took another swing, and another, and another, and another, and- "Whoa!"

Suddenly, the tree- quite literally- did a small 'poof' and vanished from her sight.

She spent the next two or three seconds looking around, astonished, before something hard fell in front of her, causing the girl to whip her head forward. "What's... huh?" Before her eyes were several blocks of what she assumed was wood. Where they came from, she had no idea, until the dots were slowly connected in her head. "This... is the tree, right?" she said. _Just like Minecraft._

Andrew nodded. "That's right. When players perform labor, materials are converted to small forms for ease of collection," he said. "If I were to chop a tree down, _then_ I'd have to worry about which direction it falls towards."

"Geez, game convenience sure is nice," Mikan said. _At the same time, obviously all the physical work goes to me... this sucks._

"Oh, look." The man pointed somewhere behind her, so she followed his finger and saw some items that weren't wood lying on the ground. "You're in luck. Some fruits were on the tree and didn't perish alongside the rest of it."

"...why would they disappear outta nowhere?" the girl asked. "Oh well. Hey, an apple. Neat." She picked up the apple, causing it to disappear into her hidden inventory. Then, glancing at the other fallen fruit, she blinked twice. "And a huge ass orange. Sweet."

"That's a grapefruit," Andrew said.

"...I thought they're much bigger, and yellow."

The man shrugged. "It... depends, I guess."

Mikan stared at it, before shrugging as well, picking it up and storing it in her inventory. Then, she looked back at the collective block of wood she obtained earlier. "Whoops. Not gonna forget these either," she said and took them into her inventory. Willing the holographic screen into her sight once more, the red haired girl read the quantity of her wooden blocks before smiling. "Twenty-five blocks of wood. This should be plenty enough to build a house."

 _...she doesn't know anything about construction, does she?_ the guide thought to himself as she began stretching her arms.

"Alright! Time to build a house. Help me plan it, Andy," Mikan said.

"...if you insist," the man said, rolling his eyes. "The first thing you should know is that as a player, again, the complicated process of construction has been limited greatly to allow you an easy time with building houses," he said. "All you have to do is-"

"Place the blocks and it'll be set in stone, right?" Mikan asked. "Don't worry, I think I got that much." _No wonder why some people called it 2D Minecraft,_ she added.

Andrew nodded. "That's right. For now, why don't you construct a simple, square room? It's the fastest design we can work with right now, and..."

"Uh, hold on," the girl interrupted. "Behind you."

The guide looked behind him to see some colored blobs of jelly hopping from afar towards their direction. "Ah."

"Are those... are those what I think they are?" Mikan asked.

Andrew nodded. "Those are slime. They're mostly harmless, or at least, they shouldn't do too much harm to you," He looked back to the otherworlder and noticed she was staring hard at the monsters. "Oh, do not worry. If we finish building the house quickly enough, we can safely avoid them."

"No, no, it's fine," the girl said, and only then did the man realize that this stranger from the outside world wasn't afraid of slime.

In fact, it almost looked as if she was... excited.

Yes, what he didn't know is that as a character previously used to express carnal desires for the slime girl kink, even as she has been converted into her own character, Mikan Hatsumi still retains certain characteristics, such as an inner (perverted) desire for slime girls. And now that she knew slime existed in this world, who's to say she can't find slime girls somewhere?

Andrew raised an eyebrow. "...well, that voice in the sky certainly revealed things I am not sure if I want to remember," he muttered.

"..oh yeah, you did say something about a voice in the sky," Mikan noted, briefly distracted. "I'd like to say it's the narration because I'm used to that, but I'm not hearing anything this time, so honestly I think you're imagining it."

"...no, I believe I'm not, but I think this matter can come later," Andrew said, as he noticed more blobs of slime appearing. _There sure are a huge number of slime appearing... this must be that 'difficulty' thing that the Order of the Guide taught us about._ "Um, Ms. Mikan. I believe it's best if we hurry and-"

"No, no, it's fine, it'll be fine," Mikan said, gleefully strolling over to the nearest blob. It stopped hopping and stared up (or so she assumed) at her. "Hey, little guy... girl, whatever. Hey, little slimey... how're you?" she cooed. Receiving no response didn't bother her one bit - currently she was overjoyed. "Who's a cute little pudgy gooey thing? You are, yes you are!"

 _I'm not sure what I'm looking at, but this won't end well,_ Andrew thought.

"Now, want some head pats? I bet you want some head pats!" the girl squealed, a hand reaching out towards the slime.

"Wait, I do not recommend doing that-"

Sizzling pain spread through her hand the moment she made contact, causing her to quickly retract her hand with a hiss. "Aagh! Burning!"

"...please try not to interact too much with monsters," Andrew said, sighing. "They can and will harm you if you-"

"W-wait, no, it'll be fine," Mikan insisted and stared at the slime again. "I can... I can endure it. I can bear the burning... for the slime!" Once more, she put her hand on the blob, wincing slightly. The girl bit her lips, trying her best not to pull her hand away.

"Ms. Mikan, I must warn you, all life in this world has a measuring system for our health and condition," the guide explained.

"I-it's alright, it doesn't hurt!" the girl said, clearly lying through her teeth. "I'll be fine, all healthy and everything!"

Andrew grimaced. "Not that. If you keep that up, the damage will accumulate and-"

Suddenly the girl's body blew apart, blood and gore splattering the surrounding area.

A gravestone had also appeared from nowhere, planting itself right where the girl had been, well, 'slain', in a sense.

The man sighed as the head of his new acquaintance rolled away from his location. "Oh, boy..."

Above where the gravestone lied, a certain spirit floated still, invisible to the eyes of all the life around the area.

Mikan blinked twice, then scratched her wisp-like hair. " _Well, this is embarrassing,_ " she mumbled, not too bothered by her new, now-ethereal body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't really given much thought about this story so far, so while I have planned the basics of how I want to proceed, I don't have a specific direction yet, asides from certain points that will come in the story, like the Wall of Flesh, Hard Mode beginning, and... stuff far away. So, I guess the story might be pretty slow for now. I hope this chapter was okay and tolerable though. Thanks for taking the time to read.


	3. Forest of Beginnings (part 3)

A strange countdown appeared in the middle of her vision, starting from thirty, as she looked around in her new, ghostly body.

 _"Okay, this is kinda cool and all, but there's no way he's letting me live that one down,"_ Mikan muttered, looking back at the guide, who wasn't having much difficulty avoiding the swarm of slime. In fact, now that she took a better look... _"Hey, they're not even going after him! No fair!"_ Then, seconds later, she chuckled. _"Well, of course not. They're good boys and girls. ...Good its. Yeah, that."_

**_Huh. You're dead._ **

Mikan perked as the countdown reached fifteen, her focus drawn to a voice familiar only to her. _"Huh? Is... is that..."_

_**Yes. It is I, your lovely leader. Why the hell are you already dead?** _

_"Oh, give me a break, how could I not?"_ the girl yelled. _"That slime was way too adorable not to pet, you know it!"_

_**Yes, but just like you don't pet a cat until it's pissed off, you do not pet a slime that sizzles your hand until you blow up.** _

Mikan frowned. _"Well, excuse me, but I... wait, blow up?"_ The girl glanced back at the ground, where, right besides Andrew was a gravestone and... splatters of blood and chunks of what she assumed to be her limbs. _"Oh. Oh... oh, God, that's... that's gross, I think I'm going to-"_

_**Don't kid yourself, ghosts don't throw up.** _

_"Sheesh, you are being a bitch for a family head,"_ the girl muttered. _"Oh, speaking of which, why don't I hear your narration?"_

_**So that you're almost on your own.** _

_"What a_ bitch," Mikan remarked. Suddenly, she realized that she had just been revived with her body intact, and Andrew was looking at her from the same level of height again.

Andrew blinked. "Oh, you're back."

"Oh, I'm back." Mikan whipped her head to see the blob fest hopping away in the distant, probably having lost interest. "Huh. Revival... neat."

"Yet another benefit for those dubbed 'players'," Andrew said with a nod. "Now then... I'd recommend finishing a house to take shelter in, first."

Mikan tilted her head. "Uh, why?"

The man simply stepped aside and glanced at the mob of slime far away, all who were, for some reason, slowly getting bigger... no, they were getting closer, making a deadly return.

"What!?" the girl shrieked. "Why're they coming back!? And so soon!"

"Monsters are attracted to foreign lifeforms," Andrew explained. "Naturally, this means 'players' from the outside world."

This was unbelievable! As tempting as it was to play with slime again, she didn't think she want to endure the burning sensation and have her body blow up again. That wasn't a pleasant experience, no sir. "...wait, when I was a ghost, they didn't go for you at all."

"I'm a part of this world."

"Hacks! I call hacks!" Mikan yelled. The nearest slime grew bigger in her vision, bringing her attention back to them. "Oh my god, oh my god, nope. Not dealing with them again," she muttered and pulled out some blocks of wood. "Andy! I just put them down somewhere, right?"

The guide nodded, sparing her any distracting explanation or correction, so she can focus on her architect skills.

One by one, the quantity of her gathered wood blocks decreased as she placed several into a huge, stable tower of, say, four blocks. "One leg done, three more to go." Mikan then glanced at the approaching mob of slime. "And maybe ten seconds before I die again, oh shit."

"You could get on top of the wooden totem pole right now to avoid them temporarily," Andrew suggested.

"Yeah, no, I know that," the girl replied and climbed up her small, unfinished structure. "I've played these kind of stuff before, I know how to utilize this feature." Standing atop of her wooden structure, she began jumping and stacking more blocks onto her 'house', until it became a stack of ten blocks. "And that's ten. Perfect, isn't it?"

"...I shall refrain from boosting your ego with compliments for something so simple," the man said.

"Wow, that attitude is just uncalled for."

Chuckling, the man faced the uninterested slime mob and pulled out a bow. "Well then, I suppose it's time I begin fending off these slime."

Mikan frowned. "Wait, you can fend for yourself?" she asked. Met with a raised eyebrow, the girl cleared her throat. "I mean, you know... they're not targeting you, you weren't helping me, and... you know."

"Contrary, Ms. Mikan. I'd be troubled if the player bestowed unto the world couldn't get some peace because of these monsters," Andrew explained.

"Huh. Sounds... reasonable enough, I guess." Glancing around, she tilted her head and put a block of wood to the side of the top of her wooden stack, wondering if it would fall down due to, well, physics. Instead, it stuck to the structure and allowed her to now move to the right, high above the hopping slime mob. "Okay, I guess I was kinda expecting it, but I'm still surprised. Physics really do have no place in world building games."

"Oh, you'd be surprised at all the privileges that come with being a player in our world," Andrew said, shooting off some arrows at some slime.

"Player privilege?" Mikan asked. "What, so, lack of physics only come for me?"

The guide nodded. "Precisely. If I were to try some construction work myself, I'd have to put in serious effort to get it working properly."

"So basically... everyone is useless except me when it comes to building?"

"...I'd put it in a nicer way, but I suppose so."

 _Hm. Neat._ Finding herself smiling slightly, the girl then shook her head and put a temporary lid to her rising ego. "Oh well. Time to continue building my royal palace," she said and resumed sticking wooden blocks to her structure. Within seconds, there was now a floating square ring of wooden blocks, kept up by only one single wooden structure at one corner. It was truly a sight to behold, one that would make someone call out physics for its bullshittery, but as Andrew had pointed out, such was the perks of a 'player'.

"I sense an oddly reasonable hint of spite in that comment," the guide remarked regarding the mysterious voice he keeps hearing narrating everything.

"What comment?" Mikan asked.

"Never you mind, don't get distracted from your task at hand."

"Alrighty, Andy." The girl got back to her work, ignoring the cries (blub blubs?) of slime being slain by Andrew's terrifying arrows. Hesitant on going back to the ground, the girl tried stacking her wooden blocks downwards while remaining on her safe space, but she was only able to reach as far down as three or four blocks before empty air became out of her hand's reach. "Uh oh, can't reach unless I get down now... mind doing this a bit faster?" she asked her acquaintance.

Andrew shrugged. "My arrows aren't that powerful, so, I'm afraid you'll have to either be patient or be brave."

"Rats. That sucks." Mikan sighed and settled down on her physics-defying wooden structure, glancing up at the sky. "Patience it is, young Jedi."

Shooting some more slime to death, Andrew tilted his head slightly. "Hm. If you wish for a jade-colored die, I believe someone somewhere out there sells dices, and you might be able to find a jade-color dye as well."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Mikan asked, as confused as him since there was no way anyone would get that joke and/or reference.

"I assumed you were talking about jade-colored dice, weren't you?"

"...sometimes I think being sent to another world destroys all the fun of stupid jokes," the girl mumbled.

Andrew shrugged, before resuming his monster hunting. Then, a thought struck his mind. "Ms. Mikan, I just recalled something. I believe players have the power to, again defying the laws of reality, construct from a distance and not requiring physical contact to place blocks."

"Uh..." The girl blinked. "Can I... can I get a dictionary?"

Sighing, the man rolled his eyes. "Try willing one of your wooden blocks to stick under the unfinished leg of the house's wooden frames."

"Much better. Alright, I'll see what that does." Mikan got up and glanced under her second, incomplete wooden structure once more. There were now less slime t hanks to her new friend's effort, but she still wasn't sure whether she'd risk falling down and exploding into blood and gore again. So, pushing a wooden block forward, she wished for it to extend her structure's leg even though her hand couldn't reach the underside anymore...

...and suddenly, the block was gone, and the structure grew downwards closer to the ground.

"Huh."

Andrew smiled. "So it was true, then. Quite amazing, isn't it, the benefits of a player status?"

Mikan then feigned a sinister chuckle. "Hell yeah, amazing it is."

"...did you have to laugh evilly?"

"Evil laughs are cool. Now..." Mikan then rubbed her hands maliciously, adding to her failing, pathetic attempts at seeming evill. "Time to finish the house's base! ...structure... framework! ...thing!" The girl then proceeded to sticking more blocks to her structure's undersides, then running around her square ring of wooden blocks, finishing off the other two structures 'holding up' the house's open ceiling.

Within few more seconds, an empty house without walls was finished and looking magnificent under the sunlight, and fortunately for her, Andrew had just finished off the last of the slime as well.

"Wow, would you look at that?" Mikan asked, standing proudly in front of her not-so-special, unfinished house. "Viva la France. ...whatever that means."

Andrew nodded. "For a first time, you've done well, Ms. Mikan," he said. "...also, I think that phrase is completely irrelevant to the moment."

"Yeah, well, I like the sound of it, so, viva la France."

"...whatever suits you, I suppose." Then, Andrew turned to her and smiled. "Next, we should get to work on building the walls."

Mikan blinked. "...I mean, sure. Just cover up everything with wooden blocks. This won't take long."

"Oh. Well, I suppose I should explain a bit more to you, then."

The girl stared. "Uh oh."

Andrew nodded. "There's still more to learn about how construction works here."

 _This is becoming a pain..._ the girl thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this chapter, I decided to put focus on three things: **first** , interaction with the author and the fourth wall. My OC is shown here to be able to interact with me only as a spirit, once she dies. This means that I won't be interfering much, because no one's stupid enough to die on purpose just to talk for, say, fifteen seconds. (...well, I mean, maybe masochists might, but that's not her.) **Second** construction. On a 2D surface, you'd only have to build one side of a room and it's automatically a room. Now that I've translated the setting into a 3D environment, think of it as having to build a 3D square of wooden blocks, rather than 2D square of wooden blocks. **Lastly** , monsters gathering... they have absolutely no interest in anything other than the player. That doesn't mean the NPCs are immune, because obviously, they're not. If they touch, even by accident, then yeah they'll be hurt, but to keep with enemies targeting only the player, they'll... well, target only the player.  
>    
>  Anyways, we're still in the beginning, introduction section of the story. Next chapter will focus more on construction, specifically, how I interpret the concept of 'walls' into story format. I'll be modifying it a bit to bring in the concept of 'safe spaces', so look forward to that.


	4. Forest of Beginnings (part 4)

"In our world," Andrew explained, "when players build polygonal structures, a special kind of space is created."

"Yeah? What's that?" Mikan asked.

Pointing to the structure she built, with no walls, Andrew gestured her to follow him. "Us of the world refer to it as a 'safe space'." He stopped in front of one pole, gesturing at it. "Break enough of this pole, please. Make enough space for us to supposedly enter a broken wall."

Confused, the girl complied and did so. Heading inside the structure's territory, Andrew watched as the girl entered after him.

"Okay, now put the blocks back in place."

Again, she wordlessly did as told, wondering what any of that accomplished at all.

"The space between the frames are, at first glance, just empty space, but to the instincts of most monsters, it is a sudden, new part of the world that they know nothing about."

Mikan blinked. "Even if, like... they might be able to just... look inside?"

"Supposedly," the guide said and nodded. "Imagine it as, let's see... how about we say that in their vision, everything inside the structure is highlighted as completely black space?" he suggested.

"Okay... so are houses basically a fully immune defense to monsters?" Mikan asked. "That doesn't sound right, but it sure sounds helpful."

"Not entirely," Andrew said. "The main obstacle for monsters' instincts is vision, as I've explained. When a safe space is first built, it is completely blocked in their eyes, and not only can they not just hop through, a sort of monster-only barrier prevents them from making what they assume would be a mistake of jumping inside empty space." He went to a wall and gestured at it. "However, once you add proper walls and a door... their eyes will gain special permission to peer into the room."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "A door... lets them get inside?" she asked. "Sounds pretty useless then. What if I just don't add walls and don't add doors?"

"The law of the world does not allow that, unfortunately," Andrew replied. "Perhaps in the eyes of a player, they are granted an ability to see through the safe space, so you may see that there's nothing in between you and the outside." He put a hand to the empty barrier, however, and showcased how his hands seemed to actually be pressed up against a surface. "For those who were naturally a part of this world, however, we see the same as monsters. The outside as of right now is a complete mystery to me, pitch darkness, an inescapable abyss of nothingness."

 _...that sounded like some deep shit,_ Mikan thought. "Okay, so you can't go through this... space. What if I can?" she asked. "Player benefits, am I right?" Making her move to simply walk out the structure she built, the girl found herself crashing into... air? She hissed and clutched her head in pain. "Son of a bitch!"

"The world won't grant you every free ticket through hardships," Andrew said. "That's why I'm afraid you can't as well, unless you break one of the poles holding up this house first."

"Walking through air shouldn't be a hardship that needs a ticket..." the girl groaned. "Now I know how it feels to walk into a pole when you're distracted on the street..."

"Now that that's all cleared up..." Andrew tried to look outside the safe space, but to no avail. He assumed, however, that there were probably slime surrounding the house everywhere. "While we're still in here, let's try building walls now."

"Oh, uh, sure. I guess." Mikan took out her blocks of wood and stared at it in her hand. "...wait, so if I'm getting this right, you stopped me because we can't put blocks between two poles?"

"No, you can," Andrew said. "It's just that if you build a wall parallel to another wall, they'll all form lines of barriers across the room, and you might not be able to move after trapping yourself like that," he said.

Mikan frowned. "Alright, so... crafting, then?" she asked. "Not sure how I'll go about that though."

The guide rubbed his chin. "Well, let's see... if you have ten blocks of wood, you can craft a workbench," he said. "And then you can craft on those to build lots of other things... what say we give it a try?" he asked.

"Uh, sure. Crafting, huh?" The girl separated ten blocks of wood from her total and put the rest back in her holographic inventory screen. She then looked at the blocks in her head. "...wait, so how do we craft here?"

 _Oh, boy,_ Andrew thought. "So, um, from what I've heard, when you will your inventory screen to you, there should be options somewhere in your vision to let you choose what item you want to craft."

"Oh, right. That makes sense, I guess." The girl opened her inventory screen again and her pupil darted around, trying to locate the- "Found it! Boogly boo, I am good at this."

 _Debatable,_ the blonde NPC thought.

"Let's see... Rope Coils, Wooden Platforms... Wooden Bench. This, huh?" She tapped on the option to see what was required. "Ten wooden blocks... alright, so I'll build this, I guess?" Tapping the option again, suddenly, ten of her wooden blocks disappeared from her inventory and a small, miniature figure of a workbench appeared in her hand. "...uh, Andy? This... this isn't it, buddy. Like... this isn't it."

Andrew chuckled. "For convenience, items carried by players are mostly converted to small sizes, for carrying and for storage purposes. Once you place it, it'll revert to its proper size."

"..yeah, that makes sense," she said and placed the figure on the ground. It then gradually grew in size into a regular... workbench. _This looks like a kiddy table,_ Mikan thought. "Okay, and then... after this, what's next?"

"Well, now you must..." Andrew paused, a thought occurring to him. "...before that, Ms. Mikan. Have you noticed another option in your vision, when you open your inventory?"

Mikan blinked, then opened her storage space and looked around. "Uh... yeah."

"I believe there should be an ability to tamper with the world somehow... and there should also be a sort of, if I'm remembering this correctly, research and duplication tool in there," Andrew said.

"...really?" Sure enough, there was something about researching items for the purpose of duplication, and it seemed like she could put anything into a slot for 'research'. "Seems like hacks to me."

"It seems like these are benefits for certain players in certain worlds," Andrew explained. "I'm not entirely too sure about the specifics of that myself. But since it seems you have these features, I daresay we should make good use of them."

"I put one block of wood here... and it says I need ninety-nine more to be able to duplicate it," Mikan noted. "Luckily, I have enough, so... whoops-a-daisies." Soon, she was able to pull out an endless amount of wooden blocks. "...y'know, I'm starting to realize how convenient this is."

Andrew smiled. "Alright. Then, let's get to building your first house."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to give a bit more focus on building structures within a now-3D environment. After relaying it to myself over and over in my head, I made some modifications, complications, that stuff, and eventually this is what I end up with. If it's hard to understand, don't worry... I don't get my own conclusion much myself, and both me and Mikan are too lazy to discuss it like people discuss politics, so we're not touching on this any further, unless maybe again some other time.


	5. Strengthening Starts (part 1)

After what felt like hours, in which only half an hour had passed, the house looked much more like a proper house now.

"Wow, I think we did great," Mikan said. "It's starting to look like a palace now."

Andrew stared at the structure they worked on together - it looked like an amateurish, block house, nothing like a palace at all. "..."

"I can hear judgement, but I appreciate you not saying anything," the girl said, chuckling to herself. "And thanks for getting rid of all the slime around, too. Even though it took way longer than I expected, and even though they did't deserve any of that violence..."

"Such is the way of the world, Ms. Mikan," the guide replied. His infinite supply of arrows was reassuring, of course, but it'd be troubling if the girl didn't do any atual combat at all, especially as the player of this world... He glanced at the hole in the wall they left uncovered, square-shaped, for the door. "All we have to do now is craft a door to attach to the building, and you'll have your first, completed house."

Mikan smiled. "A'ighty! This should feel satisfying." The girl ran inside and hopped in front of the work bench she crafted earlier. Going through her options, she eventually found the choice to craft a wooden door and tapped the option. Wood was subtracted from her inventory, and out came a small, door figurine in her hand.

"...no matter how many times I see it, the sheer convenience that players get is really... amazing," Andrew noted.

The girl ran over to the open entrance and held the door up to the empty space. Magically, the door enlarged itself and fit into the gap, closing the open entrance entirely. She smiled. "Yeah, this really is amazing... look at this metal part that lets you swing doors open. I never knew how creating doors work, but this means I don't have to bother learning that stuff."

"I... suppose you don't have to, not in this world, at least," Andrew said. "If you want to become a carpenter in real life, though, you should probably do that..."

"Haha, nah, I don't have that problem," Mikan replied. "Real world future issues only apply to the voice. Us concepts get everything decided for us, so I don't have to bother with none of that stuff!"

"...? I... see." _Voice? Concept? The outside world sure is strange,_ the NPC thought. "Anyways, I've been thinking about how to proceed from here. Perhaps you should take the opportunity to explore around the world and see what new things you can discover and gather, to bring back to craft new things," he suggested.

"And die like the beginner I am? Who're you kidding, Andy?" Mikan asked. "But... you do make a good point, yes sir."

She sighed and sat on the floor, legs crossed. _This is troublesome... I don't wanna get burned by damage and die again, that's not a nice feeling._

"Considering the blessing of revival granted unto players, I believe you shouldn't worry too much," Andrew said. "Although I do understand that pain is not a nice feeling. Think about it this way though..." The man raised a finger as if to make a point. "If you happen to chance upon any great equipment, you'll be able to fend off the monsters and explore even more."

"Oh, yeah, didn't think about that," Mikan said and quickly got up, all traces of hesitation completely gone in a flash. "The spirit of an explorer resides within me! I can't let death stop me! The world needs me!" she yelled like a delusional and narcissistic idiot.

"I suppose if you put it like that, then that isn't wrong," the guide replied. _And the mysterious voice in the sky sure likes making fun of her._

Turning to face him, Mikan smiled. "And I guess yeah, you should probably stay here. NPCs don't revive, do they?" she asked, to which he shook his head. "Yeah, thought so. After all, people die when they are killed."

"...yes, they do," Andrew said with complete agreement, confused why such an obvious statement needed to be stated at all in the first place.

"So... I guess this is it, huuh?" Mikan said and scratched her head. "Man, now I'm feeling awkward all of a sudden. Like... not used to these touchy feely stuff."

"...I mean, it isn't as if you were departing forever," the guide pointed out.

The girl blinked. Then she she laughed. "Oh, yeah. Oh well, never mind that. Heading out, keep my house safe, guard!" The excitement within her peaked and resulted in the girl quickly turning around and running off to experience some good ol' exploration, immediately forgetting to be cautious and, well, essentially everything one should think of before exploring an unknown world.

Sighing, Andrew turned around and walked back towards the new house they built, opening the door and entering the structure. "I didn't think players were this strange..." he muttered. _Then again, it seems she has her own circumstances too, so... oh, whatever._ He glanced out the door once more, before shrugging and closing the entrance.

 _I'm sure she'll be fine,_ he thought.

...

The sky was darkening at an alarming rate, and to her surprise, it seemed like slime had some kind of sense of time. She could hardly spot any slime now, and as much as she'd prefer not to sustain damage and go out like bloody fireworks again, the few that she encountered expressed no more interest in her, which was honestly somewhat saddening.

But of course, night time often introduces new monsters, as many games do, and Mikan soon remembered this.

Which is why, she was now running through the forest, several flying eyeballs soaring towards her, a horde of zombies trailing behind.

"Andrew you son of a bitch! You should've reminded me that it was getting dark!" the girl screamed, running straight ahead to escape the deadly horde, unfortunately also getting further away from the house she had built.

What gave her an especially difficult time was how zombies were pouring in from basically every possible direction, and through last-minute maneuvering, Mikan barely managed to slip through small gaps between the slow walking dead and continue her survival marathon.

"Damn it! I'll remember this, you stinkin' rotting lot!" the girl hissed as she briefly glanced behind her. "Next chance I get, I'll kill you 'till you be more killed than you already are!"

Suddenly, she remembered her inventory. There was a short sword provided for her, which she forgot about, but that was a weapon, wasn't it?

Spotting some more zombies, less in number than the horde behind her, the girl willed her storage into existence and pulled her sword out the following holographic screen. She spared no time examining her sword and threw her blade of iron forward, knocking (in an attempt to slash) a zombie away from her. "Huh. Game physics I suppose." She tried a few more times, while running, to stab the zombie in front of her, but to no avail.

It was still neat watching it eventually explode in a shower of blood, though.

Mikan sighed with relief, somewhat proud of herself for successfully killing one of the many walking deads.

Then the nearing growls of the others snapped her back to reality and she continued running.

"Starting to feel like I'm not on an easy difficulty world here!" the girl said, then glanced upwards to see some more floating eyeballs soar past her. "Ah, fuck. You know! It'd be nice for the main character plot armor to kick in around right now!" she yelled, hoping the authority above would be nice to her and let her survive this night.

Which would indeed be a respectable thing to do, but let's be real: who likes Mary Sues?

She hadn't ever received any responses nor heard any narration so far, so she wasn't too surprise that nothing went in her favor. "When I get out of this world I'm gonna fucking break his neck..." the girl then muttered.

 _Come on, brain, quick thinking!_ Mikan willed her inventory list open again and racked up some more ways to defend herself.

Eventually, the girl pulled out her infinite wood block supply and began crafting an extremely small, cube structure around herself. The girl finished in around five seconds, rushed by panic and fear for the scorching pain of receiving damage in this world, and glanced around waiting to see if the mysterious barriers really worked.

True to what Andrew had told her, the zombies crashed into what seemed like empty air, but was an invisible wall blocking out everything that wasn't inside.

Even the flying eyeballs were reflected by the magic between her and the outside. (Although the split second of the eyeballs squished against the barrier wasn't really pleasant to look at.)

Sighing with relief, Mikan slid down until she was on her rear, taking in the cool sensation of the grass underneath. "Damn. This world sucks," she muttered. _I'm tired and probably can't outrun these creeps forever, so I probably have to sleep here._ The girl looked up again and grimaced - zombies sure were hideous up close.

Once more, she sighed, and closed her eyes gently. Sleep was the only option for her right now, she supposed.

 _...I hope I don't have bad sleeping habits,_ the girl promptly thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter marks the beginning of a new section of the story. ...it's really not that grandiose though. I just figured it's a bit slow to keep sticking to the 'Forest of Beginnings' title, and since I'm having Mikan do some actual exploring now, the story deserved a new chapter title... which then led to me deciding I'd focus on Mikan slowly getting the hang of her starting Journey Mode equipment, the weapons, fighting enemies, etc. Also, I feel the pacing of this chapter is a bit fast around the end: honestly I wasn't too sure how to go about these, I didn't want to suddenly write some super cliched coincidental start into a conspiracy or new character or something (you get the idea). As said before, while this is technically a self-insert story, I didn't really have an interest in making this a 'Chosen One' story of Terraria; I really just wanted to write an OC into the world. For the lulz. I guess.


	6. Strengthening Starts (part 2)

With the zombies gone, escaping the rays of light and the coming morning, Mikan was now safe to escape her hastily made safety shelter without dying. As she promptly remembered a meme once shared to her, of beginning Minecraft players hiding in a small hole underground from various night-time enemies, she frowned upon noticing a horde of slime approaching her again.

"Ah, fuck, I hate surviving in the wilderness," the girl muttered, putting her structure back to its magical barrier-making form, shutting the slime out.

As they drew closer, some smacking into the invisible wall of her safety shelter, the girl rubbed her chin before opening her inventory again.

"You know, I might as well as actually see what else I can do asides from chopping down trees and building stuff."

The first thing she noted was that it seemed she was equipped with wings. This confused her greatly, because there definitely wasn't anything attached to her back. But perhaps... Upon the intent to fly forming, she noticed from the corner of her vision - while looking behind her - that weak-looking wings suddenly sprouted from her back. And it didn't even give off any freaky, tingling sensation too - it was as if they were a parasitic equipment that sensed her intent to fly and did so for her, without actually having been planted into her body.

Mikan's eyes widened. "Whoa, sw-" The girl then flew upwards and, in less than even a split second, crashed into the shelter's barrier-enforced ceiling. Pain surged through her head, and despite no actual damage being done, she felt like half her life had been smacked away from her health bar, if anyone could see it at all.

Hissing, the girl settled down again and her wings disappeared.

 _I can't believe I hurt myself in this safe space that's around my height,_ the girl whimpered mentally.

That was humiliating, and hopefully, this does not spread to anyone.

...now that she thought about it... _I wonder if the others back home are watching and making fun of me,_ the girl thought. 'Character watches story' wasn't that common of a fanfiction idea, but she's seen a fair amount of that sort of thing, and now that she herself was in an insert story, her family/clan/something members that weren't put into this world were probably watching her like those stories and criticizing her every second.

"...well, I'll kick their asses once I finish this Terraria game and get back to them."

Opening her inventory once more, she moved on to another item that piqued her interest.

Some sort of circular, head-sized mirror that, upon pulling out, she had to hold with both hands. Gazing into it, she felt a strange sensation growing inside her - and thus she quickly put it back into her inventory screen. "Nope. Nuh uh. Not doing any of that weird psychic bullshit," she muttered. Narrowing her eyes at the item once more, a description box popped up on the screen.

_'Magic Mirror:_ _Gaze in the mirror to return home.'_

The girl blinked. "...huh. Convenient, but I don't need that now, I suppose." The girl shrugged and attempted to move on, before she paused and glanced back at the slot. "...wait, actually, these could come in really handy, and if I accidentally lose them, I'd be fucked..." the girl whispered. Realizing how useful the duplication shtick this world let her play with was, the girl pulled her Magic Mirror and her Fledgling Wings out the inventory and equipment slots, navigated herself to the item research function, and plopped them in.

Minutes later, she had blindly put all her other items in the research function slot and replicated them back into her inventory.

Knowing how easier her life hr probably became, the girl gave herself some mental pats on the back. _Smart thinking, me._ Then, glancing at another slot, she wondered what it did, having duplicated it blindly without actually examining it.

_'Finch Staff:_ _Summons a baby finch to fight for you._ _'_

"...ooh, this is neat," the girl thought. "Finch... finches are a kind of bird, right? Wish I had ravens or crows, though, those are cool," the girl said. "But I guess I won't complain with being able to summon a helping fighter... creature... thing... thing-a-ding-ling. Partner, yeah."

Grabbing her staff and pulling it from her inventory, the girl smiled and prepared to summon her new combat partner (or something on a smaller scale, but it didn't hurt to try to be epic about it) before she remembered something.

One, she was in a safety shelter basically the size of herself. There's really no extra space here, unless she wanted some kind of inappropriate comedy just for the sake of it, which, in her family, is seen as unnecessary fanservice.

Two, there's a huge mob of slime outside, all piling up trying to attack her and being blocked by the barrier, practically covering the entire of her shelter and preventing her from seeing anything outside other than colorful blobs.

Three... well, there's no actual third point, but the girl supposed she'd come up with something eventually.

Mikan then raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what if I could summon this thing outside..." The girl blinked a few times before smiling. _It's worth a try, ain't it?_ With a very small and _not epic_ swing of her staff, magical aura flew from her staff out the barrier, the small decorative finch on top soaring along, before puffing with smoke into a real finch outside her shelter. "Sweet!"

Then, as if programmed like a robot, it quickly detected the horde of slime and began soaring around the infestation, knocking various slime of different colors around. Mikan's smile brightened, realizing she could just sit in here and let her partner do all the work - what a genius she was! - before, upon squinting her eyes slightly, she noticed the health bars belonging to the enemies and how they were decreasing _very_ , very slowly.

 _...uh oh, this could take hours,_ the girl thought exaggeratedly, as her loyal finch continued smacking away the slime. Then, for a few seconds, it retreated back to her head to rest on a nest that magically formed on her head, before flying back outside to continue its work.

Mikan frowned. _Fuck that,_ she thought and pulled out her iron-enforced short sword. Holding her pickax in her other hand, she got rid of the ceiling layer of her shelter, causing a slime on top to fall on her. The girl ignored the sizzling pain that briefly plagued her body, and charged herself upwards, the set of Fledgling Wings she was equipped with sprouting forth to bring her to the skies.

...or, at least, a barely decent amount above the ground.

"...this is lame," she noted, before her body began descending. Panicking, she positioned herself to hopefully move her somewhere away from the slime horde.

Except she was just falling down straight back into the shelter she made, now with a slime inside it. Huffing, she spread her legs to stand atop the pillars she made, then jumped again, this time with a direction in mind. As the mob of slime sensed her return and retreat towards another direction, they began hopping towards her as well.

Her summon finch flew back to her to rest on her head, and Mikan smiled. "Hey, little fella. Ready to rain hell on these slime? I'm going to be fighting too," she said. The finch simply sat in silence, not responding, so she sighed. "Oh, well. Guess you're not like a Pokémon. Man. Whatever." She landed somewhere a short distance away and turned back to the horde, brandishing her Iron Shortsword once more.

Similarly, about to head back to its battle for its summoner, the finch got off the nest, which disappeared in a poof again.

Mikan smiled. "I'm going to call you Fino. Let's put these slime out of their misery!" And with that, she let out a (weak and more adorable than terrifying) war cry, rushing straight towards the colorful mob of sludge.

Fino, her new pet finch, unnoticed by the summoner herself, then let out a chirp before rejoining the battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first began my trek into Journey Mode, I started messing with the duplication and research functions right away. Within the first five minutes of Journey Mode's release, I already had an infinite amount of money. That's... that's how broken the new system was, and I found it funny but at the same time amazing. Not complaining though. Anyways, here, Mikan begins taking advantage of what she can and thinking about what she can do, rather than just doing what she supposes she's supposed to do in this game world. The story's progress isn't much in this chapter, nor is her character development, but hey. Some stuff goes slow, and this chapter is more of the slow stuff, I guess. Next chapter I'm thinking of a start into caves and underground exploration. Or treasure chests, at least. Any readers here who likes emptying treasure chests and hoarding the chests to bring back to their base? I know I love doing that.


	7. Strengthening Starts (part 3)

The more she spent time exploring the wilderness, the more she began to understand the way the world worked here.

First - every enemy dropped something when killed, whether it was a part of their body or simply coins that were in their possession for… whatever reason.

Next - although there was no longer any need for her to chop down trees for wood, doing so gave her some new items that fall from said plants, such as fruits, acorns, etc.

Then… well, actually, that was pretty much all she could think of.

Oh, except for the small fact that together with the duplication system that Terraria's world had for players, she found a broken method to become rich - by duplicating her coins collected from slaying some swarm of slime (huge thanks to her new pet finch, Fino) she managed to max her ammunition/currency slot with infinite platinum coins.

Truly, the world's creators had overlooked this super broken system… unless they actually let this slide by intentionally.

Nevertheless, Mikan felt rather clever in her corruption of the game world's finances. Perhaps this would be something to brag to Andrew about.

For now, though, she supposed she could focus more on exploration, since it wouldn't do to miss out on something interesting just because she was busy drooling over infinite money.

Most of the forest didn't change at all, however, to her dismay. Trees, slime mob, plants, cute critters, it stayed like this for what felt like hours.

She did come across some sort of cave that led deeper underground. At the entrance, there was a treasure chest that slightly put her off - was someone living here? Was there anyone using this treasure chest, who was exploring the caves and probably wouldn't do well with some stranger appearing from nowhere?

Upon rummaging through the chest, however - which she did while fully acknowledging the lack of manners and the criticism she wanted to give herself - Mikan eventually became convinced that it was one of those stray treasure chests that existed for player convenience.

There wasn't even any sort of edible food inside, so whoever wanted to live here would have to have a damn good tolerance for hunger, or for whatever reasons, be carrying all food everywhere they went.

And so, after pillaging the treasure chest, she exited the cave.

 _...well, actually..._ Mikan promptly grabbed the treasure chest, wondering if she could take the box too. Boxes are quite a useful storage item.

To her surprise... it worked.

The chest detached itself from the ground and shrunk into the size of a normal block.

Mikan blinked. The more she tested things out, the weirder she felt the Terraria world was.

A similar idea to her money-duplication corruption formed in her head. The girl opened her hologram menu and navigated her way to the research panel, then stuffed the wooden treasure chest into the slot. Seconds later, she had a short party consisting of her throwing treasure chests around, drunk with questionable power.

Eventually, her pet finch Fino detected the revival of a slime mob and began attacking them from afar, snapping the girl out of her strange party.

Thus, the girl used her infinite supply of rope to climb over the cave, getting rid of the issue of approaching slime mobs.

That's when she saw it.

Before her eyes, as trees began fading away, as the soil grew dark, and grass turned a eerie shade of red.

In the distant, a sickening feeling began to invade her body as she stared on and on.

Something about this territory screamed 'danger' to her, telling her to get away as fast as possible.

Mikan paled and took a step forward. "I shouldn't... I shouldn't chicken out now." The girl prepared to venture deeper into this new area, when her eyes finally took notice of movement far away. Silhouettes that she pushed off as strange, chopped trees, or even delusions, seemed to be moving around in the forest of red. A few seconds observation told her they were probably zombies again, moving mindlessly.

 _Although... zombies seem to disappear when it's morning._ Keeping that in her mind, she slowly moved closer to get a clearer vision of whatever these new monsters were, being careful not to-

_snap_

\- make any noise. The girl cursed in her head as the monsters, which were now clearer in her eyes, all turned their heads towards her with surprisingly good hearing. "Son of a bitch. Why must you do this to me, you piece of shit author!?" the girl hissed.

Taking in a short but good glimpse of the now-pursuing monsters' appearances, the girl felt her stomach twist and turn, wanting to reject all the fruits she had consumed from hitting trees hours prior.

Tall, grotesque, humanoid lumps of meat, with their beating brain fully exposed and a strange, pink strip of flesh in place of where their eyes should be. Essentially they looked like simple meat dolls, body wise, but their jaws were unhinged like an open door, a mouthful of teeth glistening with drool and something with a red tint that she hoped wasn't blood.

For a fun-looking sandbox world, things suddenly turned creepy.

The girl quickly turned around to run, before remembering she had only taken two steps from the cave's upside, leaving her no space to run unless she wanted to risk jumping into the mob of slime and try to dart out of the mess. Glancing back, the walking humanoid meat dolls were getting closer and closer to the greenery separating her and the not-green land.

As Fino continued swiping down towards some slime below, Mikan bit her lips.

She had a simple idea, one that she hopefully doesn't mess up.

Taking out her infinite blocks of wood, she created a barricade covering almost all sides, leaving her with the direction of where she came from, where the slime were waiting. At least, this guaranteed the meat monsters wouldn't be able to attack her, now. ...hopefully.

...upon further contemplation, couldn't the terrifying creatures just circle around her barricade? It wasn't like they'd die just from jumping off the cave's top side, they'd just shrug it off and travel through the forest and make it to where she wanted to jump.

Mikan paled more. This was a terrible situation to find herself in.

She'd be in deep shit if she didn't hurry and make a decision, so...

The girl bit her lips. "Fino," she called. Her pet finch paused its assault on slime and flew back to her, resting on her head. Mikan glanced downwards. "I'm going to take a risk... try to keep them away after I jump, alright?" The bird didn't respond, but she had a feeling it would've nodded. Or maybe it did, she wouldn't know, not when it was on top of her head, out of sigh.

Taking in a deep breath, the girl swiftly jumped off the cave's top side. She landed in the mob of slime, her legs immediately sizzling with pain upon contact. The girl hissed, but tried not to fall on her back completely, and instead did a 180 and rushed into the cave. Her wooden blocks prepared, she quickly formed a barrier of wood keeping the slime mob out.

The few that managed to hop through then-uncovered openings were promptly struck backwards by Fino.

Almost a minute later, her vision was completely dark, all light sources blocked by her wooden barricade.

Luckily, she had an infinite supply of torches.

And so, lighting up the insides of the cave, the girl sighed with relief and glanced deeper into the cavern. "Welp. That was a hectic morning," she mused. "The only thing I can do now is... look around in this cave, I guess."

As Fino recovered its place on her head, the girl scratched her hair before unsheathing her sword in one hand, torch in another, walking towards the unknown.

Hopefully there won't be more weird, fucked up looking creatures in here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, look, an update. On the first day of spooky month. ...do note that this first appearance of the Crimson and the Face Monster isn't solely just because of that. I just so happened to finally post this today. Anyways, the Crimson's gory theme definitely scared me a lot when I first found it. Corruption - unsettling, but Crimson? Crazy. I feel beginners wouldn't be ready to tackle the bloody area yet, despite the sudden discovery, so I'm going to have Mikan continue normally into what I plan to have her explore next - underground! Also, no new NPCs so far, but they'll arrive soon after this, on the trip home.


	8. Strengthening Starts (part 4)

Mikan blinked, glancing back into the depths of cave she progressed through. "Somehow I get the inkling we've been in here for around three to four months."

Her pet finch, resting on the nest on her head, simply stirred a bit. It gave no actual decent response, though.

That didn't make her feel any safer. "Fat lot you are, pet companion thing. Can't even hold a decent conversation..."

In the time she's been exploring the underground, the girl didn't have much else to do to keep her motivation up. One new thing she discovered was that things like blocks were also eligible for research and duplication, although they required a huge number of a hundred. ...of course, it was easy to meet that number considering everywhere in the cave was essentially harvestable, with her trusty iron pickaxe!

...how should she go about enhancing her equipment? The girl knew that in these sort of games, players typically start gathering materials and then crafting better things to get stronger, sort of 'progressing' through the game.

The girl currently had no means of crafting at all, though. ...except that workbench she made back at the spawn point, but she wasn't going to go all the way back just to get it from Andrew.

Speaking of which, hopefully he was doing fine.

Enemies didn't seem to bother attacking NPCs, so she supposed he's safe.

...golly, she must be so bored.

"...Fino, please talk to me," the girl cooed quietly as she glanced up.

The finch just continued sleeping, no enemies in sight for it to attack.

"Jerk." Mikan sighed and continued walking forward. The cave's grounds were descending slowly, but she didn't have to worry about falling. Regardless, there was something eerie about going underground, and she just couldn't quite put a finger to what it exactly was.

And then, she heard it. A quiet, wet, slap somewhere behind her.

The girl twisted her head around in a hurry, her heartbeat getting faster.

Something was here. Something was behind her, where she came from.

Her eyes widened when she realized the terrible situation she was in. _Fuck! It waited until I was deep inside, then covered my only escape! Smartasses... what should I do!?_ The girl found she was unable to move, rooted in slight fear and - admittedly - curiosity. Just what was chasing her into this cave?

Images of the disturbing, flesh-like creature from outside flashed through her head.

 _...on second thoughts, fuck staying around to see it._ The girl twisted around and began running again, until she tripped. "Aaaaghjrbtgrhbg!"

Her face colliding painfully with the ground, the girl groaned as she got up.

Meanwhile, Fino finally reacted, and suddenly flew towards the shadows.

"Fino! No!" Mikan called, before remembering that the pet familiars don't take damage. "...Fino?" At least, she hoped that was how it worked.

Then... the figure being attacked came into clear view of her torch's light.

It was just another slime.

"...what the hell," the girl muttered, pulling out her sword. "S... scaring me like that, jeepers peepers. Don't do that," she said and attacked the slime. Few strikes later, the slime exploded into puddles of water splashing around them. The girl sighed and apologized in her head for killing the slime, before collecting the coins and gel it dropped.

And then she noticed parts of the cave walls glistening.

She blinked. Now that Mikan looked properly... some parts of the wall weren't just dirty or stone or whatever the underground was made of. They were... well, she wasn't sure what exactly they were called, but these were definitely small pockets of ores embedded into the wall... no, the ground as well.

Actually... Mikan looked around again. Now that she knew of them, there were a lot more glistening spots around the cave interior, even in the direction she came from.

The girl had simply brushed them all off as shining from the light given off by her torch.

Now, though, she just came to the realization that this was basically what she needed to be able to enhance her status, her equipment, etc.

Mikan pulled out her iron pickaxe. "Well, hey, guess it's time to work. What's mine shall be mined and... be mine." She paused for a while, snickering to herself, before she began what she could. Her current priority here wasn't to collect enough ores to build better equipment, however.

The inner corrupt self within her cackled.

 _I'll throw all of these into research and duplicate endless supplies of them!_ she thought. _Ahaahahaha!_

Then, after a while, she checked her inventory.

"Copper Ore... hm." The girl blinked. _Wait... isn't copper items weaker than iron items...?_ The girl frowned. "...did I just waste my time here?"

Mikan put her pickaxe away and sighed. _Oh well._

But then she noticed a differently colored spot further ahead. Curiosity led her to mine them, and she checked them again.

"Lead Ore... maybe it's better than Iron Ore?" she said. "...maybe."

Pocketing them again, the girl looked around and wondered what the time was outside.

"...y'know, maybe I've gotten enough stuff here anyways," she said. Although she probably couldn't make anything better than her current iron tools, she didn't actually have armor, so maybe that was a good start, not her weapons and tools. Grinning, she pulled out her Magic Mirror item. "Guess it's time to head home and see what Andy's up to."

With a wave of her magical tool, her body glowed white and disappeared without a trace.

...

The sight of her ordinary, boring house was somewhat nice to see. Mikan smiled as she materialized, feeling somewhat proud of herself for building that house.

Even though it was mostly under Andrew's guidance.

"Wonder what he's up to." The girl went over to her first house and lifted her hand to knock on the door, until it opened right away. No one was opening the door for her, so... "Wow, automatic doors that aren't machines. This game's convenience is amazing," she said before walking in, the door promptly closing by itself. "Hello?"

"Oh, Ms. Mikan, you're back," the familiar blonde man greeted. "That was... quite fast," he said. "It's only been a day."

Mikan narrowed her eyes. "A day of exploring the wilderness by myself is a lot."

Andrew chuckled. "Well, if you say so. Anyways, guess what?"

"What?"

He gestured to another person who was in the house, who she somehow didn't notice until pointed out. "We have a new tenant."

Mikan stared. This new person was a man in yellow or brownish robes and hat, and sporting a white beard that told her he was old, but not that frail. "...who are you?" she asked.

The old man grinned. "Greetings, young miss. I'm from the Merchants' Association - you may call me Howard."

"...alright," she replied. "And you're here because..."

"I've been sent here to help you with your quest, your prophecy, to free our world from a terrifying curse, a terrible prophecy."

This got her attention. "A what now? I didn't hear anything about this."

Andrew shrugged, feeling more interested in the conversation now. "I'm afraid I do not know anything of this either. Please, do continue."

Howard nodded. "You see, long ago, the Merchants' Association discovered something terrible," he explained. "The observation that monsters carried money made us curious and prompted many of our organization to look into it, and after a long time, we've come upon a horrible conclusion."

 _...I can think of slightly unsettling reasons, deep lore wise,_ Mikan thought, gulping in suspense. Surely he wasn't going to say that the monsters were all formerly humans, right? That'd be... well, she wasn't sure how she'd feel about that.

"What is that conclusion?" Andrew asked.

Howard took a deep breathe. "You see... we've realized that..."

The other two drew closer, intensely focused on the story.

"That... that we don't have enough money!" he said.

Mikan blinked.

Some seconds later, she narrowed her eyes.

"...you're just some greedy old geezers, god damnit!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't played Terraria in some time now, so I had to rely more on the wiki (gamepedia) for details. Also, I'm lacking ideas and content to put into this filler 'arc'-like moment, so I'm going to rush a bit ahead and start upgrading equipment and featuring new characters. For now, here's the Merchant. Lack of lore will mean I'll skim over fan-theorizing Merchant lore, but I'll return to explore more of those shenanigans later.


	9. Strengthening Starts (part 5)

Howard the Merchant was... how would she put it... rather unpleasant, if not outright an obviously greedy douche.

Money clearly drove his morals and reasoning. She got straight to the point and asked what he was here for, thinking he was just a temporary, traveling merchant. His response honestly just made her feel somewhat irritated.

"Here's the deal, alright? You provide me a home and protect me." Howard grinned. "Then, I'll set up shop and allow you to purchase all the goods and tools you'll need for your exploration of our world! How does that sound?"

"That sounds great!" Mikan exclaimed, before she dropped her fake enthusiasm. "Aren't you supposed to be paying _me_ for the house?"

Howard blinked, before he laughed. "Hahaha! What are you saying? That's funny!"

 _What was?_ she wondered.

The Merchant calmed down and flashed his thumbs-up pose. "It's alright! I'll teach you about how business works later, so just get moving with the house renovations!"

 _...can I kill NPCs?_ Mikan felt like bashing this old man's head in, somewhat.

That asides, however, he did have some pretty useful items for sale. Four, in fact, she found to be necessary to buy. The rest, she bought anyways to stuff into the research and duplicate system later. The four notable items, though, were: the Mining Helmet, the Piggy Bank, the Iron Anvil, and the Bug Net. The first guaranteed her an equip-able light source so she won't have to keep pulling out her torches; the Piggy Bank is like an extra storage space, so she didn't need to worry about filling up her inventory; the Bug Net supposedly will let her safely catch critters, bugs, etc. without accidentally killing them.

What excited her the most, however, was the Iron Anvil.

 _Anvils are the stuff blacksmiths uses, don't they?_ she thought. This could only mean one thing - it was time to start crafting stuff and upgrade herself!

All she had are really just small, weak ores, but that's how people often begin. That's why, she had nothing to worry about, as long as she kept doing her best.

After buying one of everything he had for sale (making him wonder how much money she had), she took the workbench she previously made before leaving Andrew, and left the house to sit atop the rooftop.

Sitting on the roof of a house was kinda cool, after all, even if that was sort of a cringe mindset.

And now... Mikan was alone.

She grinned to herself and started throwing her items into the research toolbox, growing amused at this corrupted system. Oh, how she felt bad for the Merchant, but she really didn't think much about it. Then, as she was analyzing each item's number for duplication eligibility...

"Ms. Mikan," a voice called from below.

The girl jolted slightly before crawling over to the edge. "Oh, hey, Andy."

"...it's Andrew," he said with a sigh. "What might you be doing on the roof?" he asked.

"Uh, just researching and duplicating items, I guess," the girl replied. "Also might look into crafting new things later, so I can last longer out in the wild."

"I see. That does sound useful for further world exploration," he remarked. Then, he looked around, feeling slightly awkward for having to converse with an acquaintance from a level below, but then the awkwardness became pretty trivial. "So I see you've amassed lots of money during your stay in the wild. How many monsters did you defeat, if I may inquire?"

"...well, uh." Mikan scratched her head sheepishly. "A zombie... and a few slimes."

Andrew blinked.

"...and I duplicated the money until I became stinkin' rich..."

The man sighed and buried his face in his hands. "Our world's player has already been corrupted by money... oh, dear."

At that, Mikan scoffed. "It's not like I'm looking to swim in my pool of riches!" she retorted. "It's just... clever utilization of the player benefit of duplication, yeah. That, and I'm basically helping the ecology of this world's merchant association or whatever, yeah?"

"Economy," Andrew corrected, "and I suppose that's one way to twist it... oh, well. I'll let that slide." He sighed once more. "So what're you planning on doing now?"

"Eh, nothing different," the girl replied. "More prepared now, so I can go back out there and keep looking for more stuff to loot... I mean, discover."

"...right. If that's what you'll do, then so be it, I guess." Andrew chuckled. "Do stay safe, Ms. Mikan. You never know what you might find out there."

She nodded in response. "Yeah, I learnt that the hard way... there's this weird place out there with creepy, disgusting monsters made out of meat or something," she recalled. "That was terrifying, like, it might even haunt me when I sleep."

"...that must be..." Andrew paused, before shaking his head. "No, never mind. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see."

"Hey, you were about to say something about it, weren't you?" Mikan asked, frowning. "You know something about that place, don't you? Spill it!"

Andrew shrugged. "I can try, but I believe there's a tribe out there who's more knowledgeable about it than I am. I am but a mere Guide for explaining the uses and benefits of items," he said and shook his head sympathetically.

"Alright, that's enough sass out of you," the girl said , letting out her own sigh. "I'll keep an eye out for whatever other person might be out there, sure. Lousy ass game and NPCs..."

Satisfied, Andrew headed back into the house to converse with Howard the Merchant, and perhaps, relax for the rest of his day.

Some time later, Mikan brandished her Iron Shortsword and departed from her base of operations once more, her pet finch on her head, both ready to kick some slime asses. And zombie asses. ...and whatever new monstrosities she finds this time, probably.

As the light began to fade into orange, signaling the approaching sunset and night time, the girl knew things were about to get deadlier in an hour or a few.

Therefore, as the slime began to retreat and the stench of undead began to materialize, now would be the perfect chance to get used to reality and start hunting retreating monsters as if one were a real hunter.

Hell, maybe continue into hunting zombies would be good practice too.

...

Andrew glanced outside, slightly worried. "I wonder how she's doing tonight. It does get dark pretty quick, and the monsters that come out at night are nothing to laugh at."

"Bah, the lassy will be fine," Howard replied and waved the concern off. "She's here to save the world. I'd be disappointed if our 'hero' couldn't handle somethin' like this."

"And just what might this prophecy be?" Andrew asked. "We must keep in mind that other than being brought here, she is nothing more than someone caught up in our world's affairs."

The merchant shrugged. "Hey, destiny is destiny. I don't know anything about a prophecy, but what else would this 'Player' existence be, if they're brought to our world?"

Sighing, the blonde looked away from his new acquaintance. "Even then... extra expectations shouldn't be put onto one just for being from somewhere different..."

Suddenly, a spot shone brightly in the room, and Mikan appeared back inside the house.

"Ms. Mikan?" Andrew said.

"What, didja die already?" Howard asked.

The red haired girl gritted her teeth. "I forgot to make better equipment, god damn it!" she cursed to herself.

"..." As little as he cared, the Merchant was beginning to wonder if he should really be supporting this klutz.

Andrew, meanwhile, chuckled. _What an interesting person she is._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be the last of the Strengthening Starts fillers, and I'll be bringing in another NPC. There's really no need for mystery and tension and surprises and stuff, so - be ready to welcome the Nurse NPC to the story next chapter! Also, I made one severe error in introducing the Merchant last chapter... Mikan hasn't built a second room in the house yet! What's going on? Is this foreshadowing something? Is this an intentional chance??? ...no, it's a genuine mistake. I'm going to adapt and incorporate something new later to explain this though. But just know, it's a genuine mistake and Howard the Merchant really shouldn't have been able to come here in the first place. Get a grip, me...


End file.
